“Healthcare faces major challenges: we need to deliver more and more care for less money”
Yvo Roos is the new dean of UvA’s Faculty of Medicine since January. On his plate are the future of healthcare and the last stages of the merger between the AMC and VUmc. What plans does he have for the next five years? “Tackling things and making them better, that’s what I love.”
Since his appointment as dean, Yvo Roos, UvA professor of acute neurology, has roamed Amsterdam like a nomad: each time he works in a different place. He divides his attention between the two Amsterdam UMC locations and the UvA buildings in the city centre. On Thursday afternoon, Folia meets him at a flexible workplace in the administrative wing of the former VUmc on the Zuidas. “This is my second office – reserved for me on Wednesdays and Thursdays,” Roos excuses. “My ‘dean’ office is at location AMC. I have been working there for more than 30 years.”
Roos not only became head of the Faculty of Medicine from 15 January 2024, he became also a member of the Board of Directors of Amsterdam UMC. A double hat, that has existed since 1994, but in this case “a very important double hat” according to Roos, “because the hospital and medical education really belong together”.
2024 Dean Faculty of Medicine UvA &
member of the Board of directors of Amsterdam UMC
2017 Chairman of the Regional Consultation Acute Care Chain (ROAZ)
2013 - 2017 Five years in a row Lecturer of the year
2012 Professor of acute neurology at the UvA
2000 PhD at the UvA
1997 Neurologist at the UvA
1991 Master of Medicine at Erasmus University
How did you like the first six months as dean?
“Good. I must say that a world has opened up for me in recent months. I thought I pretty much knew the UvA, but I have met a lot of new people. Very cool.”
“And new UvA buildings. Medicine at the UvA takes place mainly at the AMC location in Amsterdam-South-East. Everything is concentrated there: education, research and patient care. A separate world far apart from the rest of the UvA, not only physically. When I became dean, that became extra clear to me. The first time someone emailed me to meet at De Brug (the bridge like ABC building on Roeterseiland campus ed.), I thought, what bridge? I have since been to most of the buildings in the city centre.”
What are your plans as dean?
“What I immediately took up is to further strengthen the connections between the Faculty of Medicine and the other faculties of the UvA. The healthcare sector is facing major challenges: we need to provide more and more care for less money. We need solutions to that, and part of that we hope to find in AI and tech. There will be times when a patient no longer speaks to a doctor or nurse, but to a virtual assistant. And how nice is it, to develop those AI solutions together with other faculties at the UvA. I really believe in that.”
What did you remember about the handover from your predecessor Hans van Goudoever?
“His main handover was that the deanery was super cool. And it is. He also handed over some things going on around the merger of the AMC and the VUmc. That is still work in progress. That merger has made us much more powerful, but it also creates all kinds of - I would say - petty issues. Which are very important to address.”
The idea of merging the VUmc and AMC is very old. There had long been doubts about having two academic hospitals with high-complexity care operating side by side in a city like Amsterdam. Merging provides an increase in scale that is essential precisely for relatively rare high-complexity care, as it results in quality benefits. The idea to merge the two hospitals gained momentum due to the staff shortage in healthcare. Roos: “It’s at the moment just also not efficient and feasible to duplicate everything at two locations.”
In 2018, the merger of VUmc and AMC was signed and Amsterdam UMC was created. Over the past six years, departments were merged one by one. Some departments moved to the VUmc location on the Zuidas, others to the AMC location in Amsterdam South-East. “We have had the bulk, we are really on the last ten, twenty per cent of the whole process,” Roos says.
Which matters from the merger are still outstanding?
“The common computer system and translation service for VU and UvA researchers, for example. This allows researchers from both universities to log in to the library, making it impossible for the library to see how many users are now from the UvA or the VU. Which in turn creates ambiguity for contracts and licenses and the like. But we’ll sort that out. It’s actually funny. Every advantage has its disadvantage a famous Amsterdammer would say...”
At the same time, hospital staff, who sometimes chose specifically for one of the hospitals, are now also grouped together in one department. That is not yet running smoothly everywhere. Are those also “petty issues”?
“Of course the merger has taken a toll on people, absolutely. It led to practical concerns because travel time sometimes became longer. We also lost staff to that. Some deliberately chose one of the two hospitals or a team, and now those teams have been put together. We gave a lot of time and attention to the unification.”
“The reverse also happens now: that we attract new staff because they think what we have created is super cool. In terms of research output, we have become a tremendously strong player in Europe, even of the world.”
And in terms of patient care?
“That too has only got a boost. You combine the knowledge and manpower of two hospitals. Thus achieving quality gains.”
That, of course, is the ideal picture, that everyone works together seamlessly.
“And that does happen. Of course there is still friction here and there, it would be strange if that were not the case in a organization of more than 17,500 people. But the vast majority... I can give you a very nice example from trauma surgery.”
“The trauma surgery and acute neurology of the VUmc were moved to the AMC site, partly under my supervision. That was necessary because of an earlier decision to give the AMC site the acute care profile and the VUmc site the non-acute care profile. During the move, there were a lot of worries and emotions involved, but you have to go through that. After all, you’re not only doing it for trauma care, but also for cardiology and all those other disciplines that would be better off working together in one location. The nice thing is that if you speak to the VU staff now, they say: we were doing great, but the way things are organized now, it’s really superdeluxe. Suddenly you have twice as many trauma surgeons and other – broad – areas of expertise around the corner. People are starting to see that now.”
“Moreover, a year ago there were still staff members who didn’t dare answer their phone in the evening because they were afraid they suddenly had to cover for someone. Now there is enough staff, so reserves can by planned in. That gives a lot of peace of mind.”
The acute work seems to appeal to you. How would you yourself describe your character as a dean?
“Solution-oriented. I am always looking for practical solutions. Of course also listening carefully to everyone, absorbing all the information, but ultimately tying the knot and moving forward. Tackling things and making them better, that’s what I love.”
What are the main steps in the merger that you think still need to be taken?
“The final relocations, cardiology, for example, still needs to go over. And the well-known dotting of the i’s. The professor appointments for example. The medicine faculties of the VU and UvA have a slightly different method. We now want to equalise that as much as possible.”
“Also, during the first moving waves, we may not have paid enough attention to the masterstudents, the UvA and VU coassistants. Because the courses are arranged slightly differently, we now want to see if we can align the programming a little more. We are working hard on this coordination.”
Your predecessor, Hans van Goudoever, now still chairman of the hospital’s Executive Board, dreamed of a single new hospital in the Bijlmer where AMC and VUmc would come together. Do you share that vision?
“The dream is mainly to have the clinic in one location. Now we have two locations with an acute versus non-acute profile. But some departments, such as radiology, have to stay at both locations. In that respect, it would be more efficient to concentrate, at least the patient beds at one location. It would be nice if we could do that within fifteen years.”
How do you look at the next five years?
“I expect substantial changes within healthcare, within now and ten years. We need to start preparing students for that. And that is also exciting. My daughter is studying medicine, I’m curious to know what kind of hospital she will end up in.”
